30 Days of Buffy Challenge, Day 14: Favourite Season 7 Episode
After Season 4, Buffy gets progressively darker and more serious, and comedy episodes after midway through Season 6 are in short supply. For this reason, I've chosen Episode 7x16: Storyteller.
The final season only has one other episode that could be called a comedy, and this is Episode 7x06: Him, and both episodes veer away from comedy when they reach their fourth act.
This one is the only episode to centre around Andrew Wells, introduced in the previous season, and the only surviving member of the trio who attempted to wreak havoc in Sunnydale. He wasn't a character who I cared for that much in Season 6, but its Season 7 where he starts to become watchable, another villain character managing to be rehabilitated through association with the Scoobies.
This episode is really about what a fantasist Andrew is, making video diaries about what is going on while just about every main character is now somehow living in Buffy and Dawns' house. A lot of events are therefore told from his point of view, which sets off most of the episode's comedy. At this point in the series, when everything revolves around the first, it's just good to see something that gives a few laughs. There's a surreal sequence with Buffy at school, where she now works as a guidance counsellor, and I can never work out if it depicts things she's doing or just what Andrew thinks she's doing, as events get out of hand (watch out for a recall to Episode 1x11: Out of Mind, Out of Sight).
The plot does eventually turn dark and sinister, with the appearance of students who are also the First's "bringers", trying to open up the portal (wasn't sure if is was a different thing to the Hellmouth) that first summoned the Übervamps. Without giving too much away, Buffy teaches Andrew an important lesson, while saving the world in a way that is completely unexpected, and he realises that he needs to grow up and stop fantasising.
The final season only has one other episode that could be called a comedy, and this is Episode 7x06: Him, and both episodes veer away from comedy when they reach their fourth act.
This one is the only episode to centre around Andrew Wells, introduced in the previous season, and the only surviving member of the trio who attempted to wreak havoc in Sunnydale. He wasn't a character who I cared for that much in Season 6, but its Season 7 where he starts to become watchable, another villain character managing to be rehabilitated through association with the Scoobies.
This episode is really about what a fantasist Andrew is, making video diaries about what is going on while just about every main character is now somehow living in Buffy and Dawns' house. A lot of events are therefore told from his point of view, which sets off most of the episode's comedy. At this point in the series, when everything revolves around the first, it's just good to see something that gives a few laughs. There's a surreal sequence with Buffy at school, where she now works as a guidance counsellor, and I can never work out if it depicts things she's doing or just what Andrew thinks she's doing, as events get out of hand (watch out for a recall to Episode 1x11: Out of Mind, Out of Sight).
The plot does eventually turn dark and sinister, with the appearance of students who are also the First's "bringers", trying to open up the portal (wasn't sure if is was a different thing to the Hellmouth) that first summoned the Übervamps. Without giving too much away, Buffy teaches Andrew an important lesson, while saving the world in a way that is completely unexpected, and he realises that he needs to grow up and stop fantasising.